08 May 2017

CANBERRA, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The Australian Federal Police (AFP) will receive a 321 million-Australian dollar (240 million U.S. dollars) boost from the government to expand the force and ramp up the fight against terrorism and gang crime, Justice Minister Michael Keenan said on Monday.

The funding will be given to the AFP in Tuesday's federal budget. In a statement on Monday, Keenan said the money would be used to hire 100 intelligence experts, 100 forensics experts and about 100 covert surveillance and tactical response officers.

Later, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the 240 million U.S. dollar-boost was the biggest in a decade.

"This is a very significant investment, the largest single investment in the past decade and it goes over and above what we have already done to ensure the AFP has the resources that it needs to do its job," Keenan said.